I can see where emergency lighting may well not be required in some places, particularly if the layout is very straightforward and/or there is sufficient borrowed light. For our places it's about as dark as you can get in England (although I believe the middle of Kielder forest is supposed to be the darkest and least light-polluted area?), so there's a strong argument in favour of emergency lighting, both internal and external.
I'm particularly interested in the advice re fire extinguishers. Setting aside blankets, which are a no-brainer in the kitchen, were you advised not to install extinguishers, or simply that it wasn't necessary? Although we were told to install them by our fire consultant (very experienced, but possibly over-pessimistic), I'm never convinced they're actually a very good idea; the reason being that if they're there, people may well try and use them when what they should be doing is getting out. Wave your hands everyone who's actually been trained how to use an extinguisher against a real fire? Hmmm, didn't notice a draft......
Another problem is the wrong type of extinguisher. Some years ago I knew for certain that a CO2 extinguisher could be used on any type of fire. WRONG!!!
Ooh look, the wastepaper basket's on fire. Give it a quick blast with a CO2 extinguisher and what happens? The blast pressure shoots all the burning paper out of the bin and scatters it, that's what. So one little self-contained fire in a bin becomes several uncontained little fires about to get very much bigger.As for smoke detectors, ours are interlinked (required, again) so one going off triggers the lot. Which seems like a good idea, unless you've got a rogue one which then sets all the rest off at 2:00am when you've got guests in
Yup. Very understanding guests, but just how do you determine which one decided to go off, and which may be faulty, or may have just been visited by a passing spider?I fully support the notion that a holiday let should be protected to a higher standard than a dwelling, simply because guests won't be familiar with the layout. But how about some common sense and consistency in what is essential/advisory/unnecessary.
Sorry - didn't mean it to be a rant!
BTW - just worth pointing out that our places are a barn conversion and don't classify as dwellings (all to do with planning permission for old agricultural buildings of interest etc etc), so as effectively a commercial building we may well have had stiffer requirements; not that that makes any sense, after all the use is the same.
